One type of earth-boring bit has a body with three legs formed on it. A cutter is rotatably mounted to each of the legs, the cutter having teeth or hard-metal inserts. Drilling fluid is pumped down the drill string and discharged out three nozzles. Each nozzle is located between two of the bit legs. The nozzles are housed in a nozzle boss which is a cylindrical protruding portion on a curvilinear exterior surface of the bit body. The drilling fluid strikes the bottom and returns back up channels adjacent each side of each of the nozzle bosses. The bit will contact the borehole wall at three points, each of the points being on the heel row of each of the cutters. The point of contact is on a leading portion of each cutter. Under certain circumstances, a bit may experience rapid lateral displacements, such as when drilling in an oversized hole, during horizontal drilling, within dog legs, or within key seats. These lateral displacements cause disruptions from desired rotation about the geometric centerline of the bit, which is the intended rotational axis. Lateral displacements can cause accelerated wear and catastrophic failure of the cutting elements. Wear resistant inserts have been employed on the upper portions of the bit legs to resist lateral vibration. In this prior art type, the centerline of the wear resistant insert pattern is generally directly above the rotational axis of each cutter. While such wear resistant inserts are beneficial, they do not adequately arrest severe lateral vibration.
Another prior art bit has a stabilizing area containing wear resistant inserts between each of the bit legs. Each stabilizing portion or pad encloses one of the nozzles, replacing the protruding nozzle boss used in other types of bits. The centerline of each stabilizing pad is diametrically opposed to the borehole wall contact point of one of the cutters. The stabilizing pads add three more stabilizing points offset circumferentially or rotationally from the stabilizing points on the cutters. This six-point contact adds more lateral stability to the bit than the prior three-point contact bits. However, the relatively large stabilizing pad on each bit leg tends to reduce the return flow area for drilling fluid and cuttings on smaller diameter bits more than it does on larger diameter bits, where this type of stabilizing pad is successfully used in many commercial applications.